Introduction

A major theme, if not the central, in the book of Job is the suffering of the righteous.¹ Job’s story begins with a chapter profile of a successful patriarch who was “blameless,” “upright,” and one who “fears God” and avoids evil” (Job 1:1). Brown notes that each trait is integrally related to the other, together forming a comprehensive description of Job’s character.² Added to his character, Job had vast wealth and status as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3). God affirms the author’s description of Job (1:8; 2:3) and further singled him out for his incomparable status among humans: “There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” This was an assertion Satan contended (1:9, 10). Consequently, Job unknowingly became the center of controversy between God and Satan (1:6-2:10).

Bediako notes that the contention hinges on the sincerity of Job’s loyalty to God.³ By contending that Job feared God because of divine blessings and protection, Satan insinuated an ulterior motive behind his seemingly upright behavior: Job fears God for something. On the other hand, Satan’s question of Job’s integrity both accuses and implicates God on two grounds: Special protection on Job and his family and perfecting their prosperity.⁴ Rather than refute these charges, God consents to Satan’s challenge to take away Job’s protection, wealth and comfort to enable him prove the source of his loyalty. The dire was cast and through successive raids, Job lost his wealth, servants, and children (1:13-19). Yet, the contention between God and Satan continued as, Scott Jones puts it, Job’s body eventually became the testing ground of Satan’s hypothesis about Job’s “self-interested piety” and the compass point from which Job narrates his place in the world.⁵ Beyond that, Job’s body also functions as a critical tool for testing wisdom (as evident in the entire dialogue), the justice of God and his (Job’s) steadfastness and eventual vindication.

The story of the Book of Job is laid in the far-off patriarchal age having common parlance only with the Book of Genesis; a time long before the Israelite state, with its religious, social and political organization, existed. Its place is "the land of Uz," a little-known region Southeast of Palestine, on the borders of Edom; a place remote from the ways of thinking peculiar to Israelite lawgivers, priests and prophets.⁶ The Book is a drama, written in two parts. The frame is written in prose and the dialogue in poetic language. The frame contains an opening prologue (Job 1-2) and the closing epilogue (Job 42:7-17). In the prologue, the reader is introduced to the intrigue of the drama, and in the epilogue, the drama is concluded. The poetic part of the book (Job 3:42:6) contains a dialogue that includes a number of speeches with a similar design: with the narrator speaking in the beginning (prologue) and at the end (epilogue) and the characters in the dialogue.⁷ Bullock notes that the portrait of the faithful Job in the prologue (1:21; 2:10) hardly prepares one for the near-defiant Job of the dialogue. The problem has two facets: the literary and dialectic, which are really one. Some scholars have tried to solve the literary by proposing that the prose narrative originally had nothing to do with the poetic dialogue. Yet, Bullock argues that if the story of Job’s life and faith prior to his tragedy is the mere occasion for the author of the dialogue to engage his literary skill, we lose the impact of the suffering, innocent man who moves from questioning faith in God through the depths of trouble (prologue), and subsequently challenges God’s justice (dialogue).⁸ Upholding the strong connection and interrelatedness between the prologue and the dialogue, the paper revisits Job’s attitude and responses to his tragedy as a basis for examining his avowal (19:25-27). Pertinent to the study is the premise of Job’s sudden twist from seeming despondency to hope and the lessons faithful Christian believers, who might be experiencing difficult and hopeless situations which threaten their wellbeing and faith in God could glean from Job’s experience. To accomplish this, the study is further divided into the following sub-sections: The Suffering of the Righteous/the Justice of God; Job’s Struggle with Life and Death – the Emergence of Hope; Job’s Eschatological Hope: Analysis of Job 19:25-27; Job’s Recovery: An End to Eschatological Hope?; The Reality of Suffering in Africa vis-à-vis Job’s Sufferings, and the possible implications of Job’s Eschatological Hope on African Believers. This will be followed by the conclusion.

The Suffering of the Righteous/the Justice of God

Whereas the Book of Job is no doubt part of wisdom literature, its wisdom seems somewhat unusual. Some scholars speak of crisis of wisdom in connection with Ecclesiastes and Job.⁹ Job is seen as an iconoclastic attack on the traditional idea of divine justice and retribution, as evident in the Old Testament.¹⁰ Whereas such reading is not mistaken, the problem of retribution has to be viewed from the perspective of the entire Bible. First, as Murphy noted, the book is a broad treatment of the issue recognized already in the questions addressed by Abraham to the Lord in Genesis 18:22-32, in the “confessions” of Jeremiah (e.g. Jer 12:1-5), in the book of Habakkuk (1:4, 13), in several Psalms (37, 73), and in the book of Jonah. There appears to be a tradition of such questioning at the heart of Israel’s faith. Second, the author of the book does not impose an answer. Rather he develops various approaches to the problem in an attempt to shed as much light as possible on the issue of human suffering and divine justice.¹¹

Job’s experience provides a somewhat shift in paradigm from the pentateuchal praxis that righteousness will be rewarded and wickedness punished (Lev 26:3-7ff; Deut 28). This idea of divine justice and retribution runs throughout Israel’s experience.¹² Rich in this understanding and their conviction on how God works and ‘must’ continue to work, Job’s friends concentrate on reminding him of the concept of retribution and insisting that he should repent and receive forgiveness from God, who is just. This to them is the only remedy for his woes (4:7-8, 8:5-7). But from the outset, the arguments of Job’s friends were “out of order” and did not apply to him because neither them nor Job are aware of Job’s innocence and God’s approval in the prologue. Suffice it to say that before God’s appearance on the stage, the entire dialogue was premised on and dominated by the conviction of Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and later Elihu that since God is pure, upright and cannot be unrighteous, all-knowing, almighty (4:17, 8:6, 11:7, 12), Job must be in the wrong. On the other hand, Job continues to protest his innocence, while paying little attention to his friend’s argument.¹³ Thus, Job’s speeches, from the prologue through the dialogue, set the stage for understanding his struggle with life and death with the aim of underpinning the trajectories that gave birth to hope amidst intense sufferings.

Job’s Struggle with Life and Death – the Emergence of Hope

Satan’s attack on Job’s body was rapid and heinous; he lost his health as Satan smites him with painful boils, probably a serious skin disorder, over his entire body (2:7). Job also loses his honor (2:8). The pain occasioned by the skin ailment prompts him to scrape his sores with a potsherd as he sits in the ashes of the garbage dump. Having been stricken with strange illness and with Satan’s prediction that Job will curse God to His face (1:11; 2:5), the question is: What will happen to his faith in God? Will Job’s commitment to God suffer the same fate as his possession, as Satan has insisted? Or, will Job’s piety endure even when his prosperity does not? After seven days of silence with his friends who have come to commiserate with him, Job broke the silence. He expresses his wish that he had died at birth (3:11-19), and questions the value of life for those who are suffering (3:20-26).¹⁴ Hartley opines that Job’s extended reflection on his suffering has left him stunned (3:1). Whereas he cannot deny that his suffering lies within God’s control; he could not also understand why he should be suffering such pain. The equanimity that he evidenced in 2:10 is now replaced by agitation. This change conceivably stems from the thought that time has allowed the full extent of his loss to sink into his sub-consciousness, whereas previously he likely was in a state of shock. In addition, his reflection on how his life has been stripped of all tangible evidence of divine blessing causes him to focus on the injustice of his condition. Moreover, as Job speaks after his long silence, his honest feelings surfaced. Job is not stoical or pretentious. Instead, he openly expresses his deep feelings as his faith endures the anguish of bitter experience. In this feature, Job’s piety shares the transparency so evident in the lament and imprecatory Psalms¹⁵ (35, 37, 42, 43, 52, 69, 77, 83, 90, 100, 109, and 137). Remarking on this, D. Smith notes, “The unleashing of this unrationalistic emotion has a cathartic effect. In pouring out his hatred of life, he unleashes much of his frustration and anger he feels at being unable to cope with all that is happening to him.”¹⁶

Satan’s prediction is that calamity will cause Job to curse God to his face (1:11; 2:5), but rather than curse God, he curses not just the day of his birth but of his conception (3:1-10). Estes submits that parallel curses in Jer. 20:14-18 and Lam. 3:1-18 suggest that these words do not express an unrighteous sentiment. Evidently, however, godly piety does not necessitate the triumph of reason over passion, as though correct theology drains feelings out of a pious response to God.¹⁷ From his subconscious, Job shared his pain as he battled with the reality of both his losses and present predicament to the extent of desiring that darkness of chaos swallows the day of his birth. He felt that staying back in his mother’s womb would have been preferred to being subjected to the pain and suffering of life.

Understanding that such hope was in vain as God will not reverse the creation order for his sake, Job wishes that he could have died at the time of his birth. He sees the grave as the door of rest, because it brings to an end the miseries of life. Job also views death as a great social leveler by which all unjust earthly distinctions are replaced by equity (3:14-15). But he quickly abandons such view and returns to his initial desire to have been stillborn (3:16, see vs. 11), which for him would be better than living, since he would have been discarded before having to endure pain. Yet, he returned to his argument of death as a social leveler (3:17-19) and an opportunity for rest. Further, he expresses not only his inner groaning (3:24), but reveals a major concern; the fear of God’s disfavor which he had tried to avert (1:5), has come to him (3:25). Job concludes his initial lament in verse 26: “I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only tumoil.” Habel observes that in stark contrast to his perception of the restful order of Shoel (3:13-19), in his present experience Job’s “inner being is in chaos and his world in confusion.”¹⁸

Amidst Job’s anguish and pain, his wife offered a pitiful but dangerous offer which echoed Satan’s intention: Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die! (2:9). This suggestion hits Job at the weakest and most vulnerable point, the only thing that is left for him, his integrity. Whereas she, undoubtedly, motivated by her concerns and sympathy for her husband, her offer reveals that she was willing to trade integrity for loss of pain. On the contrary, Job’s notion of integrity was not subject to necessity but is inextricably linked with his pious refusal to curse God under any circumstances. His agitated response to his wife’s recommendation (2:10) demonstrates not only his refusal to act foolishly by cursing God, but also signals a leap of hope and consciousness of the supremacy, sovereignty, and magnificence of God, who should be held in awe irrespective of human conditions and circumstances.

Job’s consciousness and somewhat emotional stability was however interrupted by the speeches of his friends. First, from a conciliatory tone of asking Job to follow the part of retribution which he has taught others in the past (4:3-4), Eliphaz moved to practical wisdom by setting forth a universal law of retribution (4:7-11, see Psalm 37) which he has derived from observation. He presents the central theme of his theology in 4:17 thus: “Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?” (NKJ), which inadvertently disqualifies whatever case Job thinks he has. He urges Job to eschew folly and accept God’s discipline as a means of education and blessing (5:17-26). Commenting on his thesis, Clines submits, “Eliphaz fails to help Job because his theology does not allow for the reality of a Job, of a righteous man who has no longer any ground for confidence, whose reverent piety has led him only away from assurance and toward despair.”¹⁹ Consequently, even though Eliphaz intends his words to encourage Job, they utterly fail to console him.

In response to Eliphaz, Andersen notes that Job explodes in an emotional outburst of self-defense, in which he defends himself mightily, protesting against his friend’s insinuation that he has some questionable past that needs correction.²⁰ He contends that his outburst is justified because what Eliphaz considers rash are in reality appropriate because his vexation in the face of unjustified affliction is beyond measure (6:2-7). Job pictures God as a warrior who attacks him, treating him merely as a target for his poisonous arrows (6:4). But rather than commit suicide, he wishes that God would crush him (6:8-9). At this point, Job’s pain was severe that his hope is not in any providential deliverance, but in divine elimination²¹. He reaffirmed his earlier feeling that death is the only relief for him (7:1-6; see on 3:14-15, 17-19). To him, death is the end and mortality is irreversible (7:9-10). Indeed, Job seems to have reached his breaking point; in casting away hope, he preferred dying to living. Yet, Job does not passively accept the inevitability of his death; instead, he turns passionately and courageously to God, speaking from the anguish of his spirit (7:11-21). It is obvious Job is overly confused, especially over the silence of God. Although he has claimed innocence, he now pleads to be forgiven by God (7:20-21a).

Bildad begins by calling Job a windbag (8:2). From his total commitment to traditional wisdom, the issue is simple and clear since it is inconceivable for God to pervert justice (8:3). Therefore, he builds a double retribution theology: 1. God destroys the wicked (8:13); 2. God prospers the righteous (8:20). Viewing Job’s situation through the lens of his rigid retribution theology, therefore, he contends with Job to take the initiative to seek God by confessing his sin to him (8:5) rather than waiting for God to seek him (cf. 7:21), since according to him, the only way Job can return to prosperity is through confession of his sin. Thus, he demonstrates his ignorance of the real issue that confronts Job and the fact that his restoration (42:10-17) will not be predicated upon his repentance of sin that has caused his calamity.²²

In response to Bildad, Job agrees that God will not pervert justice, being certain that a man cannot win a legal dispute against God (9:2, 14-22), which echoes Eliphaz’s previous question (4:17). Whereas Job shares with the comforters the starting point of the retribution theology of traditional wisdom, his situation compels him to move beyond a fixed formula to explore the character and justice of God in greater intricacy (9:5-12).²³ In considering the overwhelming greatness of God, Job slips into viewing God’s sovereignty in judging the world in terms that approach arbitrariness (9:13-24) in which He destroys both the innocent and guilty thereby negating Bildad’s argument that God will neither reject a person of integrity nor support evildoers (8:20). Hence, although Job tries to shake off his problem and desires to address God, he is reluctant thinking God will not acquit him; his situation is hopeless and his life will soon be over (9:25-35). Yet, amidst the seeming intimidation from God, Job summons courage to speak directly to God out of his conflicting emotions of fear, frustration, anger, and disappointment; he questions why God is contending with and condemning him even though He is aware of Job’s innocence (10:1-7). Hartley expounds that Job’s confusion results from his ignorance of God’s purpose as he views Him as acting capriciously. If Job had knowledge of the proceedings in heaven recorded in the prologue, the trial would be easier for him to bear. In fact, he would most likely have willingly accepted the test in order to vindicate God’s trust in him. But for his test to be severe as possible, Job must be unaware of God’s confidence, for trust in God is tested to the ultimate when circumstantial evidence calls into question the integrity of one’s devotion to God. Hence, God’s silence intensifies a person’s testing far more than physical and emotional pain.²⁴

In contrast to what Job believes that he deserves, he experiences persistent pressure of God’s hand of judgment, imagining why the divine hand that formed him with great care now threatens to destroy him (10:8-17). Again, Job wished that a stillborn or miscarriage would have forestalled the pain that he had experienced (10:18-19). And where that is not possible, he wonders why if God was unwilling to prevent this situation, could he not at least relent and give him a few days of peace before his death? (10:20). Job finally anticipates no future but death, which he pictures in terms of gloom and deep shadow, deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness (10:21-22).²⁵

Unlike Eliphaz, who appeals to experience and personal revelation, and Bildad who builds his argument on tradition, Zophar, Job’s third friend employs strict deductive logic as he evaluates Job’s situation. He begins by rebuking Job (11:1-6), accusing him of talking so much, unwisely and insists that Job’s present punishment is only partial, tempered by God’s abundant mercy.²⁶ In Zophar’s estimation, Eliphaz and Bildad have not adequately answered Job’s many words; hence, he considers it his moral duty to uphold God’s justice by silencing Job through argument (11:3-12). His anger basically stems from Job’s claim to be tam (blameless) in 9:20-21, a term that refers to personal integrity which Zophar is not ready to accept. He bemoans Job’s attempt to discern the mystery of God’s wisdom and hidden motives. Despite his harsh language, Zophar has not completely abandoned hope for Job. Assuming that God must be punishing Job because of some hidden sin, Zophar pleads with Job to repent, with the assurance of restoration to peace, prosperity, and prestige (11:13-20) in contrast to Job’s fears (10:21-22), but for the wicked there is no hope from death (11:20).

Job’s response to Zophar ends the first cycle of dialogue. In the first half, he addresses his friends, and turns his attention to God in the second half. Speaking directly to his friends, Job repays their scorn with scorn of his own (12:2). With contemptuous sarcasm, he bemoans their assumed monopoly of wisdom when in reality he is not inferior to them in intelligence (12:3). To Job, they are uttering mere commonplace wisdom rather than assessing his unique condition with the precise insight that is needed. In the remaining part of chapter 12, Job argues that their assumption of retribution theology is not validated by experience. Using his personal situation, he submits that their observations of life are superficial, and they do not take into account a careful examination of the facts of life (12:4).²⁷ Further, he cites the fact that there are rich oppressors who prosper even though they have acted in a godless way (12:5-6). Echoing the sentiment of the Psalmist (Ps. 123:4), Job decries those who hold both God and the innocent in contempt. Consequently, Job contradicts Zophar’s claim that security is limited to those who are right with God (11:15-20). In relation to the activities of God (12:13-25), Job cannot see the precise discernable discrimination between good and evil, hence he concludes that although God possesses wisdom and might, he does not act according to strict retribution as his friends have presumed. It is plausible that Job begins to build some hope and confidence in God’s judgment and fairness, which might eventually favor him. He therefore charges his friends with being false witnesses for God (13:7-12) and appeals to them to be silent so he could speak to God without their interruption (13:13-14), as he is more conscious of justice than self-preservation. Then, Job’s morale buoys as he exclaims: “I will hope in him” or the consonantal text “I have hope” (13:15). Either way, it is conceivable that fresh assurance in God’s ability to deliver balanced justice brings hope to Job who now has confidence to defend his ways before Him. But God must first relieve him of the heavy hand of affliction and remove the sense of overwhelming dread that terrifies him (13:20-21). Yet, Job’s hope dangles as he bemoans the misery of human life (14:1-6). But he later finds hope in the ability of a tree to grow again after it has been cut down (14:7-9). The struggle between hope and despair continues as his hope for the future dims (14:13-17). He concludes his lengthy speech on the despondent note that death means separation even from knowledge of one’s family and leaves a person in profound isolation (14:21-22).²⁸ Without doubt, Job’s losses with the attendant emotional trauma and his painful suffering account for the struggle between hope and despair as well as life and death.

In the second cycle, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar speak in turn. However, Eliphaz is not as sympathetic as at first (4-5). He charges Job of suffering the fate deserved by a wicked person (15:2-3). According to Eliphaz, Job has contradicted the wisdom ethic of reverence to God (15:4). Using what Estes calls a rapid-fire assault of humiliating questions, Eliphaz endeavors to establish rhetorically that Job’s wisdom is empty (15:7-16). Arguing from his personal observation, which has been confirmed by ancient traditional wisdom since time immemorial (15:17-18), he asks Job to keep silence. Using a strategy of shock therapy, Eliphaz contends that despite appearances to the contrary, wicked people have a miserable life and a miserable death, painfully aware of their impending judgment (15:20-24), of whom the almighty God will destroy (15:25-26). While asserting that Job’s prior affluence and self indulgence are responsible for the debilitating effects he is experiencing (15:27), he concludes that rather than maintaining wealth, the proud sinner will be like a vine or a tree withered by the flame of divine retribution (15:29-30).²⁹

In response to Eliphaz, Job rejects his friends’ call for repentance by countering many of their specific charges. He challenges their claims to superior knowledge, and he discounts their arguments as irrelevant to his case (16:1-6). Job’s distress is rooted in his keen sense that God is opposing him. He has been so afflicted to the degree that his friends have abandoned him (16:7) as they observe his emaciated body (16:8), which they consider proof of his guilt. Because Job is confident that he deserves acquittal even though his friends have proclaimed his guilt, he appeals to the earth to serve as a witness that he, like Abel (Gen 4:10), is innocent (16:18). Further, he contends that he will receive from heaven an advocate to counter his accusers (16:19). Hartley develops the significance of this statement:

Here Job appeals to God’s holy integrity in stating his earnest hope that God will testify of the truth of his claims of innocence, even though such testimony will seem to contradict God’s own actions. Such risking is the essence of faith. For a moment Job sees God as his steadfast supporter. In this plea he is expressing the trust God has expressed in him in the prologue because he is pushing through the screen of his troubles to the real God…he is affirming genuine confidence in God regardless of the way it appears that God is treating him. Since Job, in contrast to his friends, will not concede that truth is identical with appearances, he presses on for a true resolution to his complaint from God himself.³⁰

Job’s resolve to look away from the mockery of his friends is threatened by the thought that God seems far removed, and there seems no common ground on which Job can present his legal dispute to him (16:21). To complicate matters, Job senses that he has little time left before his death in which his problem cannot be resolved (16:22). He has no more desire for life, for he senses that the graveyard is ready for him (17:1); hence he resigns himself to the inevitability of death (17:11-16), especially as he feels disgraced and in despair having weighed the words of insults from his friends (17:2-10).

In his second response, Bildad parallels many of the points that Eliphaz made in chapter 15. He is rigid in his thinking and has no encouraging word for Job who he thinks is talking nonsense (18:2-3), especially his assault on retribution for his own sake (18:4). He then uses words of reproach with a rambling poem in 18:5-21 that asserts that the world operates according to a strict cause-effect order of which the fate of the wicked is darkness.

Job’s response to Bildad’s speech reveals his sense of abandonment by all, including God (19:2-3); even if he were guilty – which he does not admit - his error would have been his problem alone without retaliation (19:4). Affirming that the problem is between him and God (19:5-6), Job believes that God has wronged him by delaying his acquittal, despite the fact that Job has appealed to him for vindication (19:7-12). In contrast to his prior hope (14:7-9), Job now sees himself as a tree that has been uprooted by God (19:10) and has been isolated by family, friends and acquaintances, including domestic servants (19:13-18). In his brokenness, which has shriveled him into a skeleton, Job utters a pathetic cry for sympathy, calling upon his friends to help him rather than add to the pain God has brought upon his life (19:20-22). Job’s final words in this speech (19:21 - 29) are among the most familiar in the book, but also one of the most difficult to interpret.³¹ It constitutes the kernel of this study.

Job’s Eschatological Hope: Analysis of Job 19:25-27

Whereas Job’s final response to Bildad covers chapter 19:21-29, the study primarily focuses on vss. 25-27; yet, not in isolation of the initial and closing thoughts that constitute the immediate context. Scholars hold various views on Job 19:25-27, especially in relation to its eschatological implications. Galenieks notes that one of the current prevailing thoughts is that Job expects a post-mortem encounter with God, but in an ethereal estate; suggesting that Job will see his Redeemer not with his physical eyes but outside his body in his “indestructible spirit.”³² There is also the view that Job envisages a restoration of his health and prosperity before his death. But, this seems to contradict Job’s various contemplations on death as an alternative to his sufferings.³³ Brian Schmisek summarizes the complexity of Job 19:25 thus:

This verse is riddled with difficulties. AS M. Pope noted in his commentary on Job years ago, ‘the verse is notoriously difficult, The ancient versions all differ and no reliance can be placed any on them. Various emendations have been proposed, bur are scarcely worth discussing. Many Christian interpreters since Origen have tried to read here an affirmation of immortality or resurrection, but without success: Chrysostom quite correctly refuted this interpretation with the citation of XIV 12f” Even a note in the NABRE reads: The meaning of this passage is obscure because the original text has been poorly preserved and the ancient versions do not agree among themselves. Job asserts three times that he shall see a future vindicator (Hebrew goel) but he leaves the time and manner of this vindication undefined. The Vulgate translation has Job indicating a belief in resurrection after death, but the Hebrew and other ancient versions are less specific.’” He then continues discussing Job 14 determining that it does not teach resurrection and then observes: ‘Job 19:25 is never cited in the New Testament as a resurrection text until much later in the Christian era.³⁴ Vs. 27

Despite the encumbrances around this pericope, some scholars believe that Job will die and later be resurrected. First, Edward Young³⁵ speaks of an eschatological event, namely, bodily resurrection, while Gleason Archer translates Job 19:26 thus: “And from the vantage point of my flesh, I shall see God.”³⁶

Galenieks provides the literary structure of Job 19 thus:

Although not in details, the first three divisions have been highlighted in the previous section of the study, paving way for focus on the last part: Conviction. Galenieks provides the chiastic structure of Job 19:21-29, which displays an arrangement such that despite the varying thematic elements, they are bound together thus:

Conviction

Evidently, Job’s conviction (25-27) constitutes the central part of the chiasm and functions as a part of a larger unit (vss. 21-29). Galenieks notes: “Its diverse and structural and thematic elements exhibit both a well-balanced chiasm and a structurally systematic arrangement. Moreover, vss. 25-27 not only function as the peak of the entire chiastic outline, but also demonstrate that they are bound together phonologically by their own double chiastic structure based on sound.”³⁸ He notes that these three verses are interlocked by numerous cogent elements that directly expose and dramatize Job’s conviction of the bodily resurrection:

1. The additional emphatic presence of the pronoun ֲאִּני (“I”) before the verbs יַדְעִּתי ָ֭ (“I know,” vs. 25) and זָ֥ה אֱח (“I will see,” vs. 27).

2. Intensification by repeating the verbs זָ֥ה אֱח (vss. 26, 27) and רִ֣אּו (“they will see,” vs. 27).

3. A positive clarification after the verb, זה־ִּ֗לי אֱח (“I shall see for myself,” vs. 27) and a negative clarification, זָ֑ר א־ ול (and not another,” vs. 27), which emphasizes and strengthens the positive element.³⁹

The interconnectedness of the various elements in Job 19: 25-27 is not an end in itself but plays an extremely important role in the process of interpretation, helping to clarify Job’s conviction.

Eschatological Terms

Job 19:25-27 is rich with the use of eschatological terminologies instructive for underpinning the very essence of Job’s conviction on a future resurrection. First, his combination of זה ח" (“see,” “behold”) and אה ר (“to see”) is germane. One of the functions of זה ח is to express the vision of God that every righteous person will have on the resurrection morning. On the other hand, the verbאה ר (“to see”) denotes the act of “seeing,” “perceiving,” “watching,” or “looking” with one’s own eyes. Fundamentally, the words for “seeing” are associated with the words for waking.⁴⁰ Consequently, whereas Job has chosen death as an alternative to unending suffering, his use of (“and my eyes will behold,” vs. 27) affirms his conviction that he will live again.

Second, Job’s use of יֽקּום (“He will stand”), especially as it functions in parallel to the term ַחי (“alive,” “living”), which alludes to Job 14:12, where Job employs יֽקּום parallel to יִָּ֑קיצּו (“they will awake”) in order to emphasize the future event that will take place in time and space. Galenieks further asserts that the purpose and function of both terms יֽקּום and ַחי, with גַאל Redeemer as subject, is to intensify and reinforce the concept of the resurrection hope and even more. He concludes that it is logical to associate Job 19:26 with the eschatological event, especially since the order of the word pairs follows the pattern that can be observed in other resurrection passages, namely, יֽקּום , following ַחי. I know that my redeemer lives (ַחי), And that in the end he will stand (יֽקּום ) on the earth (vs. 25 NIV)

Third, Job’s usage of פר ע (“dust”) in relation to or within the proximity of ַחי (“alive,” “living”), which characterizes the Redeemer as a living being alludes to the resurrection at the eschaton.⁴¹ The word “dust” is associated with death and the grave, the very earthly particles. Job assumes that God will descend from heaven to bring justice to the world. The use of the word also hints that this will take place after Job has died and returned to dust. Again, the words of Job come to mean far more than he probably understood.⁴²

Finally, the use of אֲחרֹון (“at the end”), which suggests “afterwards” and “in the future” connotes an eschatological term.

The vocabularies of Job’s conviction suggest an eschatological motif. Wearied by loses, intense suffering, rejection by social acquaintances, the silence of God and his inability to reverse his birth, Job resorted to death as a means of relief. Nevertheless, his hope rests on the renewed confidence in the justice of God, who is able to raise him up from death in the end. Tokunboh Adeyemo corroborates the eschatological motif by asserting that Job expresses the hope of personal resurrection.⁴³ Whereas Estes is careful not to link גַאל in vs. 25a to Christ’s role as the mediator and redeemer, he submits that Job does transcends his miserable condition to catch a glimpse of a brighter future. ⁴⁴

Job’s Recovery: An End to Eschatological Hope?

The restoration of Job took a surprising twist. He would need to pray for his friends, whose judgmental attitudes presented an image of an antagonist, before the expected health boom became a reality. He did pray for his friends (42:8,10) as a priest (1:5; cf. Matt. 5:44). Interestingly, Job had previously desired a mediator who would stand in the gap but now he is required to play the same role. Morgan perceptively observes: “They had attempted to restore Job to God by philosophy. He is now to be the means of restoring them by prayer”.⁴⁵

Job had lost both health and possessions; even more so, he had lost sons and daughters. But now all that he lost is recovered. By doubling his possessions God was only trying to demonstrate His sovereignty; everything is under His perfect control.⁴⁶

There have, however, been a myriad of responses to the miraculous recovery of Job. It is even argued whether Job’s recovery included physical restoration.⁴⁷ Others would want us believe that the restoration of Job’s fortunes tantamount to an anticlimax and that it introduces a discordant tread to the perfect plot of the story. It is, however, difficult to see the rationale in such an argument. Yet some other commentators question the reward motif in the epilogue, espousing the belief that only in heaven that the righteous can profit from right doing: “God will adjust the balances there, but will not do so in this life.”⁴⁸ The after-life reward has nevertheless not succeeded in dousing the tension occasioned by the doubling of Job’s possession. Aside from the critical strands of scholarship that cast aspersion on the authenticity of the narrative, some are indeed puzzled as to why Job’s sons and daughters were not doubled in a similar fashion like the animals. This may be conceived as merely a problem of perception. One way of looking at it, albeit spiritually, is to see as the first set of his children who died tragically but to be re-united after resurrection and the second set as those born after the trials.

The question may justly be asked: Does the recovery of Job mark the end of His eschatological hope? Obviously, no. As long as we live on this side of the divide there will always be something to hope for. Paul poetically puts it in its proper perspective. He says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love” (1Cor. 13:13 NIV). The word, “now” has been interpreted by some commentators to mean that faith and hope will only abide in this present age; but it will be doing violence to the text if love is divorced from it. On the contrary, Erdman argues “that all are to abide and yet that love ever will be supreme among the three."⁴⁹ The experience of Job does not put an end to undeserved suffering⁵⁰ and the absurdities of life.⁵¹

Impliedly, the apparent termination of pain and suffering is not an end to eschatological hope, at least in this world. The existential nature of suffering makes it illusionary to believe that it would completely go away in this present age. It can be sublimated but not subjugated as to make it non-existent. As wisely pointed out by Rowley, it is the essence of the book’s message that “Job found God in his suffering, and so found relief not from his misfortunes, but in them.”⁵² Amidst the poignant and voluminous complaints of Job, we see intimations of hope that have a wider sweep beyond mere physical recovery (19:1-27). There are discernible parallels between the restoration of Job’s fortunes and a major Old Testament eschatology – hope that follows suffering.⁵³ Whatever reprieve Job experienced through the upturning of his captivity was perhaps only temporal; it may not have totally inoculated him from the vexations of life, the daily struggles and strife and pain associated with mortality, which have become the lot of humanity. Paul made reference to this, using the imagery of a tent: “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:1-3 NKJ). Sobrino insightfully remarks: “present reality is not capable of revealing God fully… the authentic reality of God will only show up at the end of history.”⁵⁴ It would be truncating the expansive view of Biblical eschatology to think that any blessing we receive now puts an end to the “eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor.4:17) awaiting the saints.

The Reality of Suffering in Africa vis-à-vis Job’s Sufferings

For many, Africa is viewed as a continent of wars, famines and entrenched poverty. This perception seems to have changed somewhat in the past 20 years, judging by the shift in focus on “Africa rising” and an “African 21st century.”⁵⁵ But what cannot be denied is that Africa is still a continent that conjure images of the maimed, the dislocated, the dying and the dead. In describing the general suffering in Africa, one prominent theologian aptly referred to Africa as “the disfigured Body of Christ.”⁵⁶ The phenomenon of suffering on the Africa continent has assumed such a state of normalcy that for some it is natural or God-ordained. Reminiscence of Rachel wailing and weeping for her children (Matt. 2:18; cf. Jer.31:15) there are those who die still-born or who die prematurely. Indeed millions “die of hunger, famine, malnutrition, dehydration and diseases or in civil wars. Those who manage to become adults become non-persons in exiles, refugee camps, prisons…”⁵⁷

Suffering in Africa is multifaceted and pervasive. Moltmann refers to suffering, generally, as the vicious circles of death, which encloses and emasculates the people with little or no hope of relief.⁵⁸ Many have found themselves in what may be called a “lazar house”⁵⁹ of suffering and hopelessness. Whereas sufferings in Africa are many-sided with far-reaching repercussions, it would only be expedient to concentrate on three aspects of this human predicament, especially as they relate to Job’s experience. The areas of concern include health, property and life.

The Africa continent is disfigured health-wise; the burden of disease is unbearable. It has been estimated that roughly 50% of all types of communicable diseases worldwide, occur in Africa.⁶⁰ In 2015, a person living in Africa was more than three times as likely to die from HIV/AIDS than a person living in any other developing region in the world. A more sober picture is painted by a number of people that die from malaria which is endemic. Mortality rate due to malaria infection is 10 times higher in Africa than in any other parts of the world.⁶¹

Africa also experiences a high number of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. More than half of non-communicable diseases deaths in Africa occurred in people under the age of 70 and people in Africa are more likely to die from a non-communicable disease, across all age groups, than people living in the rest of the world.⁶² The scourge of Ebola has decimated thousands, particularly in places like Liberia. Poor handling of the scourge left many hopeless.

Many people in Africa believe that diseases are caused by supernatural beings or gods/goddesses for wrongdoing on the part of an individual or the parents.⁶³ For others when somebody is sick it must be the handiwork of a wicked neighbor. The religious cosmogony of Africans is not very much different from that of Job; it is a worldview that conceptualizes illness, misfortunes and even death as divinely orchestrated. Traditional healers, who claim to have a remedy for every malady, abound; they would often identify the cause of the patient’s misfortunes in the relationship between the patient and the spiritual environment.⁶⁴ There is no gainsaying that belief systems play an important role in the way people respond to challenges in life. For Job, and perhaps more so for his friends, the belief was rife that the causative agent of sickness is intricately linked to wrongdoing or misdeed; an individual may incur the wrath of God by violating divine strictures, which in turn can lead to a failing health or even premature death. It is not uncommon that the belief system of an individual or community can exacerbate the condition of the afflicted, thus whittling down the hope of recovery. Hausmann-Muela et al, for example, reports in a research conducted in Tanzania, Africa, how witchcraft and malaria can be interrelated in the interpretation of illness.⁶⁵ It is believed by a segment of the people of Tanzania that witchcraft can impede biomedical treatment from destroying malaria parasites or being detected in the blood by putting a veil on it. There is little to doubt that such examples smack of superstition and ignorance, though the reality of evil powers is not to be denied.

Indeed, Mbiti cites some examples of African tribes who would attribute common afflictions to God, who is believed to plague people for sin committed or for some reasons that may not be easily deciphered. A member of the Tonga tribe in Zambia, when in trouble, would naturally exclaim: “Heaven (God) has forsaken me!”⁶⁶ Also, the Lugbara tribe believes that God inflicts people with diseases, including mental disturbances.⁶⁷ Even though God is held responsible for diseases, magic, sorcery and witchcraft are generally regarded as the immediate causes for individual and community diseases of epidemic proportions. The Suk interprets calamities and cattle diseases to be God’s way of showing displeasure for certain misdeeds. Curiously, the Chagga tribe believes that God sends a malevolent spirit to cause smallpox and other sicknesses, but the afflicted one may be spared of death if God did not will it. When juxtapose with Job’s experience there seems to be a strange correlation; only that in the case of Job, his affliction was not as a result of wrong doing.

Summarily, God is often thought to be responsible for calamities such as drought, epidemics, locust invasions, wars and floods. These disasters or misfortunes are believed not to be happenstance; they are precipitated by God or a spiritual being as a means of punishing people for their mischief. For many traditional African cultures, God is conceived to be the Giver of life as well as the One Who takes it away. A biblical parallel in the book of Job echoed this thought: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised" (Job 1:21 NIV). This may explain why the Barundi people speak of God to be both “the Giver of children” and “He Who hates children” (because of the belief that He kills them).⁶⁸

There is an important dimension to sickness and misfortunes that is common to Africans; that is, seeing sickness and suffering as religious experiences that require a religious approach to deal with them.⁶⁹ For example, in the traditional setting, someone may be suffering from malaria because he has been stung by a mosquito carrying malaria parasites; the medicine-man would still want to know why the mosquito stung him and not another person. The most satisfactory answer, therefore, would be that the mosquito was magically sent by a particular individual or an enemy. Thus disease, suffering, misfortunes and even accidents are caused mystically. To the extent that every disease or misfortune is seen as a “religious” experience the traditional medicine-man will continue to be relevant. This may also explain why Pentecostalism has experienced phenomenal growth on the African soil. Healing or prayer houses are commonplace; they provide a meeting point where the sick are expected to be healed or those who are believed to be demonically oppressed or possessed are exorcised.⁷⁰

How has all this added to the burden of sickness in Africa? Wrong perceptions exacerbate the human condition; an error in diagnosis makes healing elusive. For Job’s friends Job’s sickness and misfortunes were directly linked to a secret sin, committed by the sufferer. Sickness may indeed be caused by supernatural forces. But is it always the case?

Traditional healing methods, is at best palliative when it is associated with or premised on superstition and fetishism. It hardly gives the needed relief to the afflicted and therefore leads to hopelessness and premature death. Unfortunately, governments in many nations in Africa have abysmally failed to provide the needed infrastructure for a responsive health delivery system. Trained doctors are leaving in droves to Europe and other developed countries where they believe they can have a slice of the good things of life.⁷¹ The cumulative effect of all these is that many Africans are uncared for, health-wise. The situation is not helped by spiraling violence, occasioned by ethnic chauvinism and religious bigotry. Nigeria, for example, has been a hot-bed of violence that has deprived many of property and lives. The ⁷²Boko Haram’s insurgency is a pain and a threat to many in Nigeria, particularly the religious faithful. The perception is that government is doing little or nothing to halt the specter of death unleashed on Christians in the Northern part of Nigeria and the Cameroun.⁷³ Many are in a state of hopelessness and resignation to fate. Added to this is the unsettling phenomenon of nomadic herdsmen in Nigeria who have not only displaced indigenous farmers from their homesteads but destroyed their farms, raped their women and gunned down their men. The victims, most of whom are Christians, are perceived to be targets of persecution and structural evil, designed to undermine their faith in Christ.⁷⁴

Against this backdrop the blame game becomes an easy cop-out. For some the witches and wizards are responsible for the parlous state of the typical African, this perception no less cherished by some of the faithful. For others, the fate of Africans is still tethered to the colonial masters, who underdeveloped Africa; therefore, every developmental initiative, today, is hamstrung by the long shadows of imperialism.⁷⁵ Still, for others, the rapacious governments that fate has foisted on African nations should be the culprit for all the burden of sufferings that many experience on the African continent. Of course, much of this censure cannot be said to be baseless. But how do they help the typical believer on the Africa continent who has apparently found themselves in a quandary, where the prospects of having life “more abundantly” (John 10:10, KJV), seems to grow dimmer, by the day?

Implications of Job’s Eschatological Hope on African Believers

Insightfully, Harvey Cox states that “in an age of reborn eschatological thinking …hope rather than belief may become the category through which we think as men of faith.”⁷⁶ Cox further insists that the theology of hope stands in sharp contrast to radical theology by saying while radical theology “glorifies the present, there is in theology of hope no reverence for present experience.”⁷⁷ For the hopeless and the disillusioned there is apparently a conspiracy of silence on the part of God; He seems not to be there for them when they need Him the most. One may, then, concur with Tillich when he avers that “it is safe to say that a man who has never tried to flee God has never experienced the God Who is really God.”⁷⁸ Who has never attempted to flee God when experiencing the crucibles of life? It is often the case that the God of the future is an echo – far and meaningless – until we come to the end of our tether. Job experienced all of these, when his logic, philosophy and theological understandings as well as those of his friends failed to make sense in the context of his suffering.⁷⁹ Braaten has succinctly given a clear perspective to the theology of hope and its importance. He says that “The Christian gospel can expect to get a hearing in modern culture only when it has some important news to bring about our human future, when it is really concerned about the world’s tomorrows.”⁸⁰ Ignoring this perspective leads to hopelessness and despair.

Modern believers may take a cue from Job. Though he was in an apparent state of hopelessness he did not lapse into despair. His expression of faith was eloquently captured in this telling statement: “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27 NIV). This text has elicited different views from commentators. We can only be brief, here. One commentator says Job was expressing despair and not hope that transcends this present world.⁸¹ Another would argue that the reference to a “redeemer” in the pericope does not in fact refer to a person, whether human or divine, but was an oblique personification of Job’s plea alluding to the protestations of innocence which eventually prevailed.⁸² This argument, however, bristles with some difficulties. If Job had something else in mind he would not have been so confident to see God (v. 26). One may therefore agree with Andersen when he stated that there were several notable Old Testament characters, like “Abraham, Moses and Isaiah, who “saw” God, and Job doubtless has something similar in mind."⁸³ Whoever Job had in mind, it is clear that he firmly believed that such a one would stand as an advocate for him and vindicate him, either before⁸⁴ or after⁸⁵ his demise. Indeed, Job may have had an inkling of the resurrection of the righteous that bolstered the confidence he expressed but that is not to say that he had a full grasp of afterlife with God.⁸⁶

There is little to doubt that Job’s belief in the afterlife gave him the assurance that helped him stay on course as he charted the treacherous sea of life. Do believers, today, need the same assurance? Yes, probably, much more.

Of all people, perhaps, believers in Africa need a hope that is eschatological, that transcends the here and now. Existential challenges like diseases, wars, violence, poverty, etc, are endemic. Bad governments and religious bigotry may be blamed for the unsavory state and that perspective could hardly be faulted. But the prophetic chart and scientific deductions about the fate of planet earth and all who dwell in it paint a chilling picture. The inspired words of John, the prophet of Patmos, provide an eschatological backdrop to the happenings of the last days. He says, “Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time" (Rev 12:12 NAS). This is no cheery news. Curtailment of religious liberty, economic strangulation as well as politically and religiously orchestrated violence constitute but a few of what will be the lot of believers in the last days (Rev 13). Africa is not an exception; indeed believers in Africa, like other places, are prophetically targeted in a diabolical plot to unleash suffering, violence and mayhem by the Dragon of the Apocalypse.

The scenario painted by science is equally depressing. Many scientists seem to chorus the view that not only the earth but the entire universe is doomed. John Polkinghorne, for example, opined that the universe may be fruitful today, “its ends lies in futility. Whatever hopes there might be of human progress within history, they can amount to no more than a stay of execution.”⁸⁷ The distinguished American theoretical physicist, Steven Weinberg, says that the more he understood the universe the more he came to the realization that it is pointless and meaningless.⁸⁸ William Stoeger specifically says, “if we are to take the truth discovered by the sciences seriously, denying the scientific description of death and the reliably supported accounts of eventual life-ending and earth-ending catastrophes is really not an option.”⁸⁹ Some have actually wondered whether the universe is ultimately a cosmos or a chaos, a world whose history makes sense or a world whose history in a poetic reference to Macbeth is a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”⁹⁰ Reflecting on the human capacity to destroy themselves through weapons of mass destruction, Moltmann warned that we “now live out our lives under the Damocles sword of the bomb.”⁹¹ In addition, the human race is frighteningly also under the Damocles of nuclear annihilation and ecological destruction; pandemic diseases emanating from viral or bacterial mutations. Thus for Martin Rees, an Astrophysicist, the chance of human survival to the end of this century is fifty-fifty.⁹² Given these descriptions that conjure nihilistic images of Armageddon, the believer’s hope cannot be anchored on present realities marred and distorted by sin or on scientific interpretations but must be eschatological and divinely driven.

This is where tacking to Job’s eschatological hope that extends to the wider sweep of the afterlife can be of immense help to the beleaguered African believer and all “wounded”⁹³ believers elsewhere, who must not jettison hope in the face of hopelessness. They must not succumb to the scientific apocalyptic scenarios that paint a gloomy picture of the future, without a glimmer of hope. Even though we are “beings toward death”⁹⁴, African believers and indeed believers all over the world are not to conclude that human life is meaningless. Significantly, the existential problem of pain and suffering and death is not foreign to the Biblical worldview; it is neatly tied to the Christian tradition. But none of these realities is ultimate; God alone is ultimate. Thus the true believer can affirm, “in life and death we belong to God.”⁹⁵

However, there is hardly any congruence between Job’s view of death and the hope of a resurrection and the views of neo-orthodox theologians. Karl Barth, for example, refers to eschatology in terms of the “here and now”. His views cohere with realized eschatology in the sense that eternity is already here; it is not something to be expected in the future. He espouses the idea that all things are already reconciled and nothing new is added.⁹⁶ While questioning the reality of physical resurrection, Barth insists that death itself is not problematic, meaning that it is not evil but only a “semblance of evil.”⁹⁷ For Job the hope of a resurrection was what put everything into proper perspective; otherwise, life itself was meaningless, a “tale told by an idiot”. Mortality is not just a “semblance of evil” it is the “last enemy” to be destroyed (1Cor 15:26 NIV). Paul also indicates that the prospect of a physical resurrection significantly gives meaning to the faith of the believer. He says, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (v. 14 NKJ).

The resurrection of Christ is a guarantee that all who die in Him will also experience the same thing. The physical resurrection of the saints, as an eschatological vision of the triumph of good over evil, is not something to be spiritualized. In what appears to be a doxology, Paul celebrates the victory of life over death through resurrection (vs. 53-55). This vision resonates with the experience of Job and many other faithful in Africa and elsewhere, faced with the ugly reality of evil. The philosophical and theological conundrum of why bad things happen to good people is unraveled in the resurrection, when the saints are vindicated. When death, the endpoint of evil, is destroyed, it is clearly a demonstration of a triumphant hope. For many suffering saints in Africa this is good news.

But a belief in the resurrection should not be seen as a cop-out, releasing the believer from temporal responsibilities. Jurgen Moltmann provides useful insights into Christian eschatology by drawing out its ethical dimension. He argues that Christian hope looks beyond all potential endings: “beyond the horizon of our own death to the wide space of eternal life and beyond the horizon of this world’s end into God’s new world.”⁹⁸ As hinted by Moltmann, eschatological hope cannot become an otherworldly escapism.⁹⁹ In reality, living out the Christian hope implies “already acting here and today in accordance with that world of justice and righteousness and peace.”¹⁰⁰ Jesus’ parable of the talents underscores the need for believers to be ethically responsible (Matt 25). They must not fall under the divine condemnation of failing to improve their lot and of those around them by being slothful or irresponsible.

Even while waiting for the eschaton African believers are to be seen as champions of “justice and righteousness and peace” to better a world that is destined for destruction. This is no contradiction! Again, Moltmann offers useful insights. He says, the idea of restoration of all things includes aspects of three broad yet somewhat different visions: annihilation, transformation, and deification.¹⁰¹ The emphasis on “annihilation” is upon how “this world in its present form is passing away” (1Cor. 7:31 NIV). The “passing away” or destruction implies a reduction to nothing (reductio ad nihilum) that is equivalent to the creation out of nothing (creation ex nihilo). The second emphasis is on “transformation”, which affirms that creation will not be abandoned or annihilated, but rather transformed, “glorified” in a way similar to “Christ’s glorious body” (Phil.3:21, CEB).¹⁰² It is to be recalled that “The Lord created the earth 'to be inhabited,' [Isa 45:18] not to be desolate, as the Assyrians and Babylonians had left the land of Israel (6:11; 7:18, 19; 27:10, 11; 33:9; 44:26, 28).”¹⁰³ The last point is “deification” which is succinctly expressed in the famous axiom of Athanasius: “God in Christ became as we are that we might become as God is.”¹⁰⁴ In this place the emphasis is placed on resurrection and the expected union of all things with God. The idea is that “God will be all in all” (I Cor. 15:28). Moltmann sums up the eschatological doctrine he formulated for the restoration of all things as follows: “God’s judgment, which puts things to rights, and God’s kingdom, which awakens to new life.”¹⁰⁵

Conclusion

One major lesson the book of Job teaches is hope that is not couched in the here and now but transcends present realities and reaches to the afterlife (Job 13:15, 19: 25-27; cf. 2 Cor.5:7). It is hope that is not bogged down in the face of fierce attacks by friends and foes. One may also learn from the Book that in periods of trials or normalcy the believer can be assured that the all-sufficient grace of God remains inviolable. Believers do not need to know why God does what He does if they know Him. The Book is valuable because it breaks down human wisdom and philosophy in accounting for the existential problem of pain. Therefore, to “sufferers in all ages the book of Job declares that less important than fathoming the intellectual problem of the mystery of suffering is the appropriation of its spiritual enrichment through the fellowship of God."¹⁰⁶

God can be found in darkness – the darkness of pain and suffering.¹⁰⁷ Just like Job, many believers who suffer today in African and in other parts of the world may find it difficult to see the footprints of God in the dark. It takes eschatological hope to illuminate the pathway of the sufferer to properly appraise the transient nature of present realities. Jurgen Moltmann underpins the decisive role hope plays in the life of the believer when he states, “From first to last, and not merely the epilogue, Christianity is eschatology, is hope, forward looking…The eschatological is not one element of Christianity, but it is the medium of Christian faith…the glow that suffuses everything here in the dawn of an expected new day.”¹⁰⁸ It is true that hope may sometimes seem irrational and pointless. But for Alexander Solzhenitsyn who saw hope as a mechanism for survival through a personal experience, he could say, “all the downtrodden can do is go on hoping. After every disappointment they must find fresh reasons for hope.”¹⁰⁹

This hope in not unfounded; it is grounded in a belief that God is in control and He is sovereign. Appearances and even experiences may be deceptive, giving the impression that God is either incapable or unwilling to rescue from the grip of pain those who put their trust in Him. The phenomenon of evil is not an indictment on God’s nature; He is still whom He is, the Omnipotent and All-loving Potentate. Believers can trust Him even when they cannot find explanations for His ways (Isa 55:8,9). With all the quantum of sufferings in the world today, and Africa bearing much of the brunt of the fall-outs, it may sometimes be difficult for believers to stem the tides of discouragement and despair. But they can appropriate the positive lessons the book of Job teaches. It reveals that “a person may serve God faithfully, whether his circumstances are bleak or filled with promise, for he has the assurance that God is for him, seeking his ultimate good”¹¹⁰ (John 10:10; cf. Jer 29:11).

Indeed eschatological hope finds its loci in the restoration of all things. Modern believers may find consolation in the restoration of all things through God’s judgment and God’s kingdom. God’s judgment encompasses “the final putting to rights of the injustice that has been done and suffered, and the final raising up of those who are bowed down.”¹¹¹ God announces His kingdom by saying, “I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). For African believers and for all believers elsewhere, eschatological hope may be conceived to be a motivating hope that enables them not to wallow in self-pity or despair. Rather it encourages them “to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the suffering and afflicted…to minister to the despairing, and inspire hope in the hopeless.”¹¹² It overcomes all “hopelessness in the face of present trouble, complacent inactivity regarding suffering and injustice, and irresponsible self-concern.”¹¹³